Business Slogan 41: Screw Yourself

I have always maintained that sex sells in advertising. Still, I raised my eyebrows and grinned with great amusement when I first saw this business slogan. Imagine, a clean-cut, family oriented furniture mega store is using “sex” to sell it’s tables and chairs.

Just make a guess who has the cheek to shout it out loud and meant every word of it.

Well, Swedish furniture house, Ikea, swore by it in 2004.

Ikea provides everything you need in the store. You’ll see shopping lists, pencils, measuring rules and copies of loan catalogues throughout the store to make your shopping easy and convenient. At Ikea, you pick up what you want, take it home and assemble the furniture you want instantly. You do a little screwing and hampering work so that you don’t have to pay sometime to do it for you. And Ikea designed the furniture such that they can be produced at a low cost, assembled within a short time. It’s the concept that you do your part and they do your part and together we save money.

So literally, Ikea provides the Ellen key and you go screw yourself.

Besides this creative and very memorable business slogan, Ikea has also used these:

Not for the rich but for the wise (first slogan written by founder, Ingvar Kamprad)

Unlimited Possibilities

Life outside work

Unboring

You don’t have to be rich, just smart.

Low prices, but not at any price

(Note: I understood that Ikea is getting rid of the screws. The 2008 catalogue said the flat-pack chairs require no tools and screws because “if it isn’t necessary, lose it”. “To tighten the price we got rid of the screws!” )

Check out more such slogans filed under “Famous Business Slogans” category. Learn from these world renowned establishments and see how you can create your own personal or corporate persona. Alternatively, I’m just an email away.

10 Replies to “Business Slogan 41: Screw Yourself”

Wow, I had not yet heard this slogan (makes me realize I need to start paying more attention to overall advertising campaigns and less on the new media world! It’s hard to know everything…)

The slogan is definitely unique, effective, and memorable. And i feel that it fits with Ikea’s sense of humor. I still remember their ad about the poor little lamp that was put out in the rain. “It’s just a lamp.”

Ikea has always been in the forefront of great advertising slogans. The layout of their ads are also very nice, clean and consistent – an Ikea advertisement is unmistakable. This makes them stand out from the truckloads of highly forgettable furniture shop ads which mainly tout price without any focus on style, branding or theme.

IKEA is surely the world’s most successful furniture store now located in practically everywhere in the world. Can you imagine the surprised look on my face when I saw that they had launched a new sex-chair last year! The idea of it was that it would help you discover new positions. Imagine wanting a refund on that one. Apparently it wasn’t a big success because this year it is no longer available, or am I wrong?

@Heidi, I haven’t heard of an Ikea sex-chair either and I’m surprised that they would go out on a limb that much. The key to the success of Ikea is in my view their ability to brand themselves this well. But does a sex-chair really serve this purpose??

LOL! It is just amusing how companies nowadays are coming up with slogans for their products. Though sometimes, some can get too far like the company you mentioned, who uses sex just to sell a furniture.

Anyways, my favorite slogan was “Low prices, but not at any price”. Wisely thought, isn’t it?

Those slogans are indeed amusing. Sometimes, they can really catch the consumer’s attention and affect the sales of the product in the long run. It is just intriguing what those companies will come up with next.